The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated an inquiry into Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey concerning their responses to heated protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the area.

According to a report from CBS News, both Walz and Frey are under scrutiny for allegedly obstructing federal law enforcement activities.

A U.S. official cited by the network indicated that the investigation was triggered by the leaders’ critical rhetoric toward ICE.

The Daily Mail has sought comments from the Department of Justice, Governor Walz, and Mayor Frey regarding the investigation.

These political figures have voiced strong opposition to federal law enforcement following the recent shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent.

In response to growing tensions, Mayor Frey made a bold statement to ICE agents, telling them to “get the f**k out of Minneapolis.”

Walz, the Democrat nominee for vice president in 2024 and currently the subject of heavy criticism over government fraud involving Somali-run daycare centers, has also slammed the president and told ICE to leave. 

On Wednesday, Frey slammed ICE officials again for ‘creating chaos’ in his city after an agent who was ‘ambushed’ during an arrest shot a suspect in the leg. 

The Department of Homeland Security said the suspect was an illegal migrant from Venezuela who ran away on foot Wednesday night before joining two others to attack the agent with a ‘broomstick or shovel.’ 

The suspect was shot in the leg and remains in a stable condition in hospital. Two accomplices were also in police custody, and the agent involved was also taken to hospital after he was violently set upon by the trio. 

Law enforcement officers wearing masks were using tear gas and flash bangs on protesters at the scene, just 4.5 miles north of where Good was shot, in an effort to control the crowds. 

Frey urged protesters who had arrived at the scene to ‘go home’, warning they were making matters worse and ‘taking the bait.’

‘For anyone who is taking the bait tonight: stop,’ he said at a late-night press conference to address the second ICE shooting to rock his city in a week.

‘It is not helpful. Go home. We cannot counter Donald Trump’s chaos with our own chaos.

‘You are not helping the undocumented immigrants in our city, you are not helping the people who call this place home.’

Protesters had been throwing snowballs and fireworks in the direction of officers as they chanted ‘our streets’ in the wake of the shooting, Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara revealed.

‘The crowd is engaging in illegal acts,’ he said. ‘We ask anyone at the scene to leave immediately. This is already a tense scenario and we do not need it to escalate any further.

‘It has absolutely become an unlawful assembly. There are individuals throwing fireworks at officers, ice and other projectiles.’

The latest shooting comes amid civil unrest in Minnesota following the death of mother-of-three Renee Nicole Good last week.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the officer involved in the shooting ‘feared for his life and safety as he was ambushed by three individuals.

‘The officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,’ McLaughlin added.

The incident took place about 6.50pm local time as federal law enforcement officers conducted ‘a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien from Venezuela.’

The criminal had allegedly been ‘released into the country’ by former president Joe Biden in 2022.

‘In an attempt to evade arrest, the subject fled the scene in his vehicle and crashed into a parked car. The subject then fled on foot,’ McLaughlin said.

‘The law enforcement officer caught up to the subject on foot and attempted to apprehend him when the subject began to resist and violently assault the officer.’

During the melee, two more people ‘came out of a nearby apartment and also attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle. 

‘As the officer was being ambushed and attacked by the two individuals, the original subject got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick.’

Authorities said the person who was shot in the leg was the initial subject of the targeted traffic stop.  

‘The attacked officer and subject are both in the hospital. Both attackers are in custody.’

McLaughlin slammed Walz and Frey for their continued statements against ICE agents in the state, noting the duo are ‘actively encouraging an organized resistance to ICE and federal law enforcement officers.

‘Their hateful rhetoric and resistance against men and women who are simply trying to do their jobs must end,’ McLaughlin said.

‘Federal law enforcement officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest criminals and lawbreakers.’

But Frey hit back, arguing the arrival of as many as 3,000 immigration officers had ‘created chaos’ in the streets and increased the workload of the 600 full time police officers in the community.

‘We have ICE agents who, along with border patrol, are creating chaos,’ he warned.

‘This is not creating safety. It is certainly not creating safety when a huge percentage of the shootings that have taken place this year in the city are by ICE.

‘It is disgusting and intolerable,’ he said. Addressing the public who may have tuned in from other states across the nation, he implored them to imagine such violent scenes taking place in their own backyards.

‘If it were your city, it would be intolerable too.’

Frey once again called on the Trump administration to recall the ICE agents deployed to Minnesota, warning that he is ‘deeply concerned’ his city ‘doesn’t have the time’ to go through the legal channels to force agents to leave.

‘People are scared,’ he said. ‘The atmosphere is tense.’

Walz also weighed in on Wednesday night, issuing a statement calling for calm despite acknowledging the community’s ‘anger.’

‘I know you’re angry. I’m angry. What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets,’ he said.

‘But Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace. Don’t give him what he wants.’

As many as 3,000 ICE agents have descended on the streets of Minneapolis amid concerns about rampant fraud within the local Somali community, as the Trump administration seeks to ramp up deportation efforts. 

Tensions reached fever pitch after Good’s death last week, with classes canceled at public schools in the region as protesters took to the streets to challenge the administration and demand the removal of immigration authorities. 

At least 60 agitators have been charged with impeding or assaulting immigration authorities in Minnesota in the last five days, ICE official Marcos Charles told Fox. 

‘We will be arresting anybody that interferes or impedes in any of these enforcement actions,’ Charles said. ‘We’ve already arrested 60… that have got in our way, impeded us or assaulted an officer.’

Good, a 37-year-old mother-of-three, was shot three times in the face by ICE agent Jonathan Ross last week after she ignored demands to get out of her car, reversed it and tried to drive off during a protest. 

Witnesses said Good and her wife, Rebecca, were acting as legal observers and filming the protest. 

Renee was seen in surveillance footage apparently blocking the road with her SUV for four minutes before she was killed.

Almost immediately after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described Good’s actions as ‘an act of domestic terrorism’ as she defended Ross as an experienced law enforcement professional who followed his training.

She claimed he shot Good after he believed she was trying to run him or other agents over with her vehicle.

Volatile anti-ICE protests erupted from New York to Texas to California in the wake of Good’s death and the Trump administration’s defense of the shooter, triggering arrests and mounting fears of nationwide unrest.

In Austin, Texas, at least five protesters were arrested at the weekend, while hundreds of demonstrators flooded downtown Los Angeles on Saturday night, prompting police to issue dispersal orders and form skirmish lines outside federal facilities.

In Minneapolis, where Good was killed, thousands marched from Powderhorn Park to Lake Street, chanting her name through immigrant neighborhoods. 

Mayor Jacob Frey said most protests had remained peaceful although 29 were arrested on Friday night for vandalizing property.

The aggressive enforcement tactics – with ICE and Border Patrol agents tackling suspected immigration offenders in public and spraying chemical irritants at protesters – have fueled violent encounters.

On Wednesday, the Daily Mail revealed ICE has come under scrutiny by DHS watchdogs after Good’s shooting death by ICE officer Jon Ross rattled national confidence in the agency. 

Independent investigators inside the DHS’s Office of Inspector General are now looking into whether the rush to hire 10,000 new agents as part of the agency’s unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration has led to dangerous shortcuts in vetting and training. 

The investigation began in August but has taken on new urgency amid protests and controversy surrounding recent ICE enforcement actions.

Near-daily television news video showing agents roughing up protestors and a 21-year-old permanently losing his sight after an ICE agent fired a nonlethal round at close range during another demonstration in Santa Ana, California have added to public unease about the agency.

One poll showed 46 percent of people in the country want ICE to be completely abolished with another 12 percent being unsure.

A team of inspectors is set to make its first visit next week to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia – where sources say new recruits are being fast-tracked.

The audit, which was initially stalled by DHS officials who were slow to turn over information to investigators, could take months to complete. 

It will result in a report to Congress, though ‘management alerts’ can be sent as needed to address more pressing concerns, insiders explained.

‘They’re offering $50,000 incentives for people to sign up, dropping their vetting and fitness standards, and then not training them well,’ one source told us about ICE’s new recruits. ‘This would appear to be a recipe for disaster.’

Another ICE insider told the Daily Mail that investigators are particularly interested in learning who made the decisions to lower training standards.